On 01/19/2014 10:02 PM, Sara Golemon wrote:
However, I have but one little issue with the HHVM syntax. Why is the ?
before the type name? I much prefer the C#-style Bar? to this confusing
?Bar. I suppose this is only a minor issue, though.
Two reasons come to mind, both essentially aesthetic:
* Symbol crowding: function foo(array? &$bar) { }
bar by ref expects array, but may take null (which is perfectly common
for a by-ref variable). Trouble is, '? &$' is starting to look
perlish.
* Generic expansion:
Prefix: function foo(?array<Bar<?int>> $baz)...
Suffix: function foo(array<Bar<int?>>? $bar)...
Both proclaim a nullable array of non-nullable Bar objects of nullable
type int. The prefix version makes it much more obvious which '?'
goes with which portion of the type structure.
function foo(array?<Bar<int?>> $baz)... sounds tempting, but some
shift/reduce conflicts start to emerge out of that stacking of tokens.
Resolvable, of course, but complicating the parser rules over a bit
of aesthetics like that.... You can't see it, but I've got my frownie
face on right now.
-Sara
P.S. - I'm not voting for or against anything at this point either.
Just offering input during discussion phase, as we're all meant to. :)